The " Boiler Room Girls " was a nickname for a group of six women who worked as political advisors for Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign in a windowless work area in Kennedy's Washington, D.C. electoral offices. They were political strategists who received national media exposure from the infamous Chappaquiddick incident in 1969. It was in Chappaquiddick that Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car crash, in which Ted Kennedy was the driver.
16-592: Each "girl" was assigned a regional desk, divided by regions of the country, and was responsible for daily communication in and out of the Washington campaign headquarters to each state director in their region. At the end of the day, a decision book was compiled and sent to Kennedy and his campaign manager, Stephen Smith . Each decision book was composed by the boiler room team. The team of women also kept track of Kennedy's delegate count against Democratic primary contenders Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey . Before
32-744: A bachelor's degree in history. He served during the Korean War as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force from 1951–1952. Smith joined his family's business, Cleary Brothers Inc., which operated tugs and barges on New York's upstate canals and in New York Harbor. He then headed the Park Agency Inc., in Manhattan, where he managed $ 300 million in Kennedy family investments. After his father-in-law Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. suffered
48-479: A stroke on December 19, 1961, Smith managed the family's fortune out of a New York City office building. He was responsible for overseeing the trusts that benefited him and his family as well as the other children and grandchildren of Joe and Rose Kennedy. Smith played an active role in JFK's 1960 presidential campaign, and was working as Kennedy's campaign manager for re-election in 1964 at the time when President Kennedy
64-660: The 1968 Democratic National Convention , the boiler room team was moved to a temporary office adjoining the convention floor where the same delegate officers met with the same state leaders. Following the assassination of United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, the team was responsible for finishing the campaign coordination work. They eventually dispersed to work in other offices on Capitol Hill or elsewhere in Washington. The Boiler Room Girls were variously described as "frighteningly intelligent, politically astute, capable as all get-out" as well as "uniformly bright, efficient, fascinated by politics". After graduating in
80-477: The 1962 class of Caldwell College for Women , Mary Jo moved to Alabama where she taught at Montgomery Catholic School. She joined the staff of Senator George A. Smathers of Florida in 1963 as a secretary. One year later she became a speech writer for Joseph Dolan , one of Robert Kennedy's political advisors. After Robert Kennedy's assassination, she joined Matt Reese Associates. She became a member of Senator Edward Kennedy 's office. After Chappaquiddick, reports of
96-643: The Children's Foundation in Washington. During the Chappaquiddick incident, Keough's purse was in the backseat of the sunken car, left there from an earlier errand, according to her testimony. She married Paul Redmond, one of the attorneys that Kennedy hired to look after the Boiler Room Girls after the incident and up through the inquest. There had already been one formal reunion of the highly regarded Boiler Room Girls prior to Chappaquiddick. It
112-759: The Democratic primaries, Kennedy announced his candidacy and made Smith his campaign manager. Kennedy lost to Carter and chose to not run again. Smith and Jean Ann Kennedy were married May 19, 1956 in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan , at which point he became the brother-in-law of future President John F. Kennedy. Stephen and Jean had two biological sons and later adopted two daughters: A longtime smoker, Smith died from lung cancer at his home in Manhattan on August 19, 1990, at age 62. Joseph Gargan Too Many Requests If you report this error to
128-405: The film, Mary Jo is seen as a political strategist and victim to the car crash. Aside from mentioning Robert (Bobby) Kennedy's campaign, the Boiler Room Girls' other political work is not mentioned. The film only shows the short string of events leading up to the Chappaquiddick incident and the aftermath. Stephen Edward Smith Stephen Edward Smith (September 24, 1927 – August 19, 1990)
144-710: The incident captioned Mary as “Copachni” by the New Bedford Standard-Times , and “Palporki” by the FBI, and even “TED SAFE; BLONDE DIES” by another wire service. Mary Ellen Lyons was a graduate of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts . Her sister, Nance Lyons, worked on Robert Kennedy's campaign staff as well. She worked for State Senator Beryl Cohen of Massachusetts. In January 1967, Nance began "working in case", assisting with constituents, federal agencies, etc. for Robert Kennedy's office. One of her projects
160-503: The work. Legislative assistants wrote the legislation on national issues, as well as the committee work and hearings. In the office, all male legislative assistants had secretaries, who aided them in their work. Nance had to write everything, type it, and mimeograph it by herself. During her time in the government she worked on the economic conversion bill and National Transportation Trust Fund. In 1968, Esther joined Robert Kennedy's Presidential campaign where she served as an aide. After, she
176-637: Was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Smith served as United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy 's campaign manager during his 1968 presidential run at the time when the Senator was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California on June 5, 1968. In the fall of 1979, as polls showed that Senator Ted Kennedy could easily defeat President Jimmy Carter in
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#1732783802573192-553: Was accompanied by three lawyers, Joseph Gargan , Paul F. Markham , and Charles Tretter, as well as John B. Crimmins, Mr. Kennedy's driver, and family friend, Raymond S. La Rosa. That night, Edward Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne went for a drive where they crashed over a bridge into Pocha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island. In 2017, John Curran directed a movie portrayal of Chappaquiddick , written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan. The movie depicts Edward (Ted) Kennedy attempting to persuade Mary Jo Kopechne to join his presidential campaign. In
208-413: Was held at Hyannis Port two months after the death of Robert Kennedy, was organised by Joseph Gargan plus Joan Kennedy , and was attended by twelve of the young campaign workers. The three day occasion included a cocktail party, a restaurant meal, sailing, swimming, charades and a cookout. On July 18, 1969 the Boiler Room Girls attended a gathering at Chappaquiddick Island with Edward M. Kennedy . He
224-508: Was known to work at the Urban Institute in Washington. She later worked as a literary agent at International Creative Management . Susan Tannenbaum was from the office of Representative Allard K. Lowenstein , Nassau County Democrat. Rosemary Keough was an alumna from Manhattanville College and graduated from Boston University Law School . She had been an administrative assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy who also worked for
240-624: Was legislation for Massachusetts, and getting the appropriations for the National Seashore or for the Lexington Concord National Park. After Nixon was elected president, she left the government. She received a call from the Senator's office about working for Senator Edward Kennedy. She responded by agreeing to come back under the condition that she receive a legislative assistant job, as she was already doing
256-569: Was the husband of Jean Ann Kennedy . He was a financial analyst and political strategist in the 1960 United States presidential campaign of his brother-in-law John F. Kennedy . Smith was born in Bayport , Long Island , New York , to Julia A. (Cleary), daughter of four-term Congressman William E. Cleary , and John Joseph Smith, and grew up in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn . He attended Georgetown University , graduating in 1948 with
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